For nearly two years, drivers working cleaning the Bay Area’s largest development projects have been left without a new contract as they fight their employer, Premier Recycle, for the right to conduct union activities. The local branch of the National Labor Relations Board is now taking up the case.
A May 21 complaint from the federal agency’s Region 32 office in Oakland said Premier Recycle, based in east San Jose, interfered with drivers’ efforts to organize for better wages and working conditions by dismiss seven key employees for union activities, in addition to discouraging unions. membership. An administrative law judge will hear the case Dec. 3, in response to four unfair labor practice charges filed by Teamsters Local 853. The union representing drivers previously expressed concerns to San José Spotlight about safety and wage theft, forgery of union votes, unjustified surveillance and a general atmosphere of hostility within the company.
“By filing a complaint here, Region 32 says it believes Premier Recycle violated the law,” Ramón Castillo, a union leader who was fired along with the company’s six other drivers, told San José Spotlight.
The company’s owners, Rocky and Brock Hill, did not respond to requests for comment.
The National Labor Relations Board manages regional offices throughout the United States to locally monitor and investigate unfair labor practice charges, which typically involves interviews and evidence collection.
“If a regional office files a complaint, it has concluded that the charges are valid and that the accused party engaged in the alleged conduct and wants to prosecute that case,” Abel Rodríguez, a union attorney based in San Francisco, told San Francisco. Sacrament. José Focus.
Drivers voted to join Teamsters Local 853 in 2022 after saying allegations of payroll issues and unsafe working conditions were not addressed. Last year, they went public with their grievances when contract negotiations stalled. They accused the company of hiring full-time independent contractors to undermine union membership, proposing surveillance policies and aptitude tests, installing a security camera in the break room and posting tow signs in places where drivers would park.
The company hired federal employment practice firm Burdzinski & Partners Inc. to help with negotiations. The firm writes openly on its website that it helps “make non-union companies unattractive to unions by setting up roadblocks and other impediments, thus making unions unnecessary.”
The layoffs occurred shortly after the drivers went public.
“It left us with a lot of questions,” Castillo said. “Premier presented its methodology to classify driver performance. Of course, the result of their methodology for ranking drivers ended up being that the worst performing drivers were the ones who were most pro-union. “We don’t think it’s a coincidence and apparently neither does NLRB Region 32.”
The drivers’ efforts caught the attention of San José Councilors Peter Ortiz, Omar Torres and Domingo Candelas, who signed a letter to Premier Recycle on March 23, 2023 asking the company to negotiate in good faith and follow the law .
In response, the company’s owner, Rocky Hill, accused council members of using city letterhead to force them to accept a union contract.
“We are a strong family business in San José that has provided employment for generations. It makes no difference to us whether there is a union in our shop, as long as the process is fair, all of our employees are treated with respect, and the highest ethical standards are applied to our elected officials,” Rocky Hill. he wrote in the letter.
Ortiz said he welcomes the complaint from the local labor relations branch.
“As the situation with Premier Recycle continues to develop, the attention of the NLRB’s regional branch demonstrates a clear understanding that unfair labor practices and bad faith bargaining efforts were made against workers,” Ortiz told San José Spotlight. “I look forward to a positive conclusion to this case that centers the needs of our city’s working families.”
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.
